godspeed | marcus rashford

five.

converge to diverge

On a day such as this one Kyrie wasn't too indulged in her work, but she still had business to attend to. She could almost refer to it as a free day; being an assistant to Claire Reyes meant that Kyrie's workload summed up to more than the average amount—back to back flights, sudden call-ups to said place was frequent, socialising with new faces was a daily activity—but at the end of the day, Kyrie didn't mind because she received generous financial compensation so she put up with the extensive work. Not to mention, some of the work she did carry out was voluntary so a minority of her internal complaints weren't even valid to take into account.

Thankfully, it was only required of her to venture out to Manchester United's training grounds to check up on one of their newest transfers, Donny van de Beek. Apart from Timo, she aided the dutch player to transfer from his previous club, Ajax, to Manchester United. I mean, with handling her own moving situation, Kyrie only played a small role in Donny's transfer situation (with Claire playing the larger role, of course), but it was still a vital one though Kyrie wouldn't admit it out loud for others to comprehend.

Kyrie cleared her throat before she spoke, adjusting the glasses situated on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were trained on the paperwork resting on the desk. "Alright. So at this point, everything that includes your involvement for you has been finalised already. However, there are some small things that are probably going on behind the scenes with Man United and Ajax, but again you don't have to worry about it because that's all between them. I just told you to let you know about it. Now," she paused in her sentence, glancing directly at Donny. "Did you get all that or must I repeat myself for you?"

Donny sat across from Kyrie with his palms clasped together. Like many players when they had their initial encounters with the assistant, they struggled to maintain a neutral expression under her bold gaze; fierce and strict and one couldn't help but shrink under it. "Can you repeat everything again, please?" he asked, his voice on a balance with his tone polite. I mean, that's the way he wanted to come through at least.

She leaned back in her seat, letting out a full exhale. "No," she watched his face drop slightly as she removed her glasses from her face. "Listen, I'll just send you an email. This isn't time-efficient on my part."

Donny's eyes widened, her words not expected by the player. "Oh. Uh—um, okay."

It was until then that Kyrie couldn't hold up her cold demeanour. And so, she let it fall as she let out a small laugh, which only further emphasised Donny's confusion about the situation. While she did carry a natural and bold demeanour, there were times Kyrie simply put it up for show to entertain her own amusement. Again, she knew that a lot of players across the board failed to understand the meaning of respect for people that weren't their colleagues. So she knew she had to send a clear message; that she wasn't to be played with and if a player failed to receive that they would have to answer to Claire, who no one attempted to mess with. Allowing her laughter to fall, she spoke. "I'm kidding. Why so reserved?"

Donny tilted his head slightly. "Can I be honest with you?" When he received a nod from Kyrie continued, saying, "I don't know when you're being serious with me or not."

"I know," she said, a soft grin across her lips. She had to admit, she felt quite bad for playing her harmless jokes on the player seeing as Donny already carried a timid demeanour. But then again, Kyrie almost wasn't one to discriminate when it came to initial treatment. "It's to set the tone with players 'cause some nowadays don't know how to act. This job of mine can be tiring on so many tiers so I can't be bothered with the b.s that comes with some football players. I'm hoping I don't have to handle it with you."